Come Learn with Smithsonian Gardens

Our mission at Smithsonian Gardens is to enrich the Smithsonian experience by extending the museum experience into an outdoor living classroom. We hope that the gardens tours and events in our gardens as well as our activity packages will help youth to exercise both their mind and body in the gardens around the Smithsonian and ultimately in their own community.

Community of Gardens is a digital, participatory archive hosted by Smithsonian Gardens and created by public input. By contributing images, videos, and stories to this website, your participation will help others to better understand the meaning and value of gardens to American life – today and in the future.

Smithsonian Gardens has created a program in conjunction with Let's Move!, First Lady Obama's initiative dedicated to fighting childhood obesity.

Orchids of Latin America

Want to stroll through a tropical rainforest on a cold winter's day? Drink in a fragrant orchid? Explore the rich crossroads where orchid botany, horticulture, and Latin American cultures meet and take our Virtual Tour

Visitors gain a wider appreciation of how gardens preserve the culture of Victorian America, as well as the Smithsonian’s long history of collecting plants and educating visitors about natural history.